USA - Lectrosonics, a leading authority in high-end audio processing and wireless technology is introducing the DM84, the latest product in the DM Series of digital audio processors with LecNet2(tm) control software, at InfoComm 2006. The Lectrosonics DM Series provides easily configurable processing, mixing, and routing capabilities for sound reinforcement and conferencing applications often requiring multiple microphones and loudspeakers, says the company.

The new DM84 unit features the capability to route any combination of inputs to any combination of outputs, in addition to auto mixing via a proportional gain algorithm, sophisticated filtering on each input and output, built-in delay on each input and output and low throughput latency. The DM84 runs on the latest-generation DSP architecture and can be integrated as part of a larger system by connecting other DM units (like

Worldwide - Roland Corporation is pleased to announce a brand-new, worldwide venture to concentrate on Pro Audio, to be called 'Roland Systems Group'.

Incorporating the existing EDIROL group and the newly formed Roland System Solutions (RSS) division, Roland System Group's (RSG's) main focus is on providing video and audio solutions for all aspects of the professional market. New products such as the S-4000, 40-channel Digital Snake, and V-440HD high-definition video mixer are just the start of a continuing development programme aimed squarely at the professional audiovisual market.

With many years of industry experience, RSS UK technical sales will be handled by Martin Thomas. Martin has a proven background in both professional audio and video and is well known throughout the industry.

Neal Tomlinson, who has a long history at Roland UK Ltd., will handle RSS product develop

UK - Harmen Pro UK is lining up four major new products to be shown at this year's ABBT Theatre Show - Soundcraft Vi6 digital live console, JBL VP Series powered reinforcement systems, AKG HUB 4000 Q Wireless Network Concentrator, and Crown XTi power amplifiers - all feature the company's HiQnet advanced audio, control, and configuration network functionality.

HiQnet, Harman Professional Group's proprietary audio system configuration, control and monitoring network, offers users rapid configuration, enhanced control and comprehensive monitoring of complicated audio systems composed of products from Harman Pro brands, says the company. System Architect, HiQnet's central control software, gives users the ability to easily set up and manage large, multifunctional audio systems from a single computer, using a single graphical user interface.

The Soundcraft Vi6 large format live di

USA - ESTA - the North American Entertainment Services and Technology Association - has announced that BSR E1.17, Entertainment Technology - Multipurpose Network Control Protocol Suite, the draft standard commonly called "ACN," is now available for public review until 19 June 2006.

The draft standard is a suite of protocols offering needed services in network management, device management, device description, and device control with reliable multi-cast transport on data networks that use the common Internet Protocols. There are 21 documents that describe various aspects of the suite of protocols, and they are all contained in the approximately 2.5 megabyte compressed file ACN.zip. Reviewers should also read the Readme.pdf file. It is not part of the draft standard, but it explains the structure of ACN and the changes that were made since the last public review.

Costa Rica - In Latin- America, outdoor festivals create a big draw, and Costa Rica is no exception. Ramon Mendiola, director of the Costa Rica Brewery, recently staged 'The Imperial Festival 2006', which included some of the biggest local, latin and international stars. Names such as Jamiroquai, who headlined day one, Hector el Father, and The Rasmus, performed for the first time in Costa Rica. Day two's headliner Sting added this event to his 2005-2006 Broken Day World Tour.

La Guacima racetrack, just outside San Jose, was host to the two-day concert held on 1-2 April and saw more than 30,000 attendees over the weekend. Sound contractor RSTV Sonido supplied main arrays of 12 Adamson Y18s and four Y10s per side, which provided enough sound pressure to fill La Guacima. The setup was designed by RSTV 's owner Virgilio Azofeifa and techs Elias Arias and ManriI Vargas, using

Germany - A diminutive performer with a remarkably powerful voice takes the limelight when Meyer Sound's new M'elodie ultra-compact high-power curvilinear array debuts in Europe later this month. Underscoring the upbeat mood of the occasion, the M'elodie demo sessions in Germany will feature source music from a live Latin band as mixed by veteran FOH engineer Buford Jones, who also serves as Meyer Sound's tour liaison manager.

The festivities begin with four sessions on 15 and 16 May in Hannover, followed by four sessions in Wiesbaden on 17 and 18 May.

The smallest sibling in the growing MILO family, M'elodie shares the sonic signature and easy-to-use rigging of the larger MILO and MICA systems. M'elodie's trim dimensions and minimal weight are a perfect match for small theatres, ballrooms, clubs, and corporate AV applications.

The M'elodie debut marks one of the first major

USA - Rock climbing, like most extreme sports, is equal parts skill and attitude. Learning the art of threading oneself to the side of a mountain is a task best undertaken by those who have learned to channel their adrenaline, and the staff at Earth Treks are among the best. The company, which operates offices and climbing centres in the towns ofColumbia, Timonium and Rockville, Maryland, specialises in rock and ice climbing instruction and mountaineering expeditions, and has guided several thousand climbers through international expeditions on six continents, including the Himalayas and Everest. Their facilities have even been used to train for the recent Athens Olympics.

Earth Treks recently opened their newest training facility in Rockville, a state-of-the-art indoor facility with 44 foot walls and over 15,000 square feet of varied climbing surfaces, including overhangs and s

India - Bangalore may rank as one of the fastest growing cities in Asia but it still suffers from erratic power conditions and high temperatures - important considerations when planning any major installation of lighting and sound into a venue. When Bangalore-based Acoustic Control was contracted to both design and install a high end sound and lighting system for Christ College's new auditorium, they chose LSC Lighting products.

"The LSC dimmers and consoles are suited to India's unpredictable power conditions and extreme temperatures," said Sanjay Mudartha, director of Acoustic Control. "The dimmers have saved our lamps on many occasions when voltages exceeded safe limits, by shutting down. And despite very hot and humid conditions have never shut down due to thermal issues."

Situated on the third floor of the new block at Christ College, the auditorium se

UK - After a four-year gap, Hawthorn has again worked on Pro Retail, this year - the number one retail trade show in the UK, is held at Telford's International Centre. Hawthorn was contracted by DB Systems to provide lighting, sound, rigging, staging, power distribution, starcloth and crew for the two day event.

Hawthorn's project manager, Matt Oscroft specified Clay Paky Alpha Spots and Alpha Wash lights, supplemented with Pulsar's LED Par 36s and Thomas LED battens. For control, he chose an Avolites Sapphire and Irad Pixel drive. In order for Hawthorns to get across their design concepts, Oscroft used their new WYSIWYG suite, providing visuals and complex designs for both DB Systems and the final client, Palmer and Harvey. This software proved to be invaluable as time was limited onsite and there were no space or time for errors.

Oscroft's sound spec included Martin Audio li

South Africa - dbx Professional Products, a manufacturer of professional signal processing products and a division of Harman International, have played a key role at the Kitchen Bar, in the ground-breaking Design Quarter, in Johannesburg.

Situated in the suburb of Fourways, it is South Africa's first truly comprehensive décor and design retail centre - a vibrant hub for lovers of cutting-edge décor products and design services, industry trend setters, socialites and restaurant patrons.

Kitchen Bar is a key feature of the development, presenting new standards of culinary excellence influenced by international trends. A crucial element in the new venue is having AV facilities to equal these standards. Harman Pro products distributor, Wild and Marr were called to the challenge.

Since Kitchen Bar was designed to be a restaurant, cocktail bar, lounge and night spot

USA - Loud Technologies has appointed Jeffrey Cox to the position of vice-president for the EAW brand group. As the new business leader for the EAW brand, Cox will be responsible for defining and leading all business and product strategies, including collaborating with Loud's sales, engineering, operations and marketing teams to ensure the deployment of these plans worldwide.

Cox brings to EAW a proven track record of introducing industry-defining sound reinforcement products and building highly successful business organizations around them. As the founder and CEO of Cox Audio Engineering, he was responsible for the introduction and manufacturing of the L-Acoustics V-Dosc Line Array, a product that caused a paradigm shift in loudspeaker formatting which completely altered modern-day touring and installed systems.

"I couldn't be happier that Jeff has agreed to head EAW,&qu

USA - Meyer Sound has announced that mixer Mark Frink has joined the company in the position of tour manager.

Frink has spent decades on the road mixing FOH and monitors for artists ranging from Tony Bennett to Joni Mitchell to Meredith Brooks. He also has worked on major events including the Superbowl, Pope John Paul II's 1995 Giants Stadium appearance, the New York Philharmonic/Metropolitan Opera's In the Parks concert series, and the Tibet Freedom Concert held at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Frink acted as monitor engineer and production manager for k.d. lang on her 2004-2005 worldwide tour, on which she performed in concert halls with symphony orchestras.

Frink has also kept his finger on the pulse of the industry through his 10 years as sound reinforcement editor for MIX magazine, as well as a recent stint as tour sound editor for Li

USA - After a recent remodel, Christ United Methodist Church (CUMC) in Sugar Land, Texas moved into a larger and more aesthetically pleasing space. Unfortunately, the room suffered from a twofold reverberation problem: too much of the wrong kind for one application, and not enough of the right kind for another.

The church's dual dilemmas stemmed from the spectral characteristics of the sanctuary's architectural acoustics. Any sound system that fully excited the room would produce high-frequency reverberation certain to impair voice intelligibility. At the same time, low-mid reverberation needed for depth and fullness in organ music and congregational singing would be seriously deficient. Further architectural changes to remedy the situation would have been prohibitively expensive, and likely detrimental to the visual aesthetics of the room, as well. Fortunately, consultant and a

USA - Solid State Logic, a manufacturer of professional digital and analogue consoles, is pleased to announce the hiring of Quinton Nixon as product specialist. Quinton will be based out of SSL's Los Angeles office.

Quinton comes to SSL from TC Electronic, where he served as product specialist. Prior to that, Quinton was a freelance recording and post-production engineer based in Atlanta, following three years as a staff engineer at Doppler Studios.

As product specialist, Quinton's responsibilities will include product demonstrations to SSL retail partners, in-store clinics and tradeshows. He begins this undertaking with the recent launch of Duende, SSL's new DSP-powered processing rack unit for audio workstation users.

"I was a recording engineer in Atlanta and always had a tremendous respect for SSL," says Quinton. "I'm thrilled to be working for Solid State

Denmark - TC Electronic is announcing the immediate availability of the MD3 Stereo Mastering package for Pro Tools|HD. Ported from TC's processing flagship System 6000, the MD3 includes two first-class algorithms, MD3 Multiband Dynamics and BrickWall Limiter. The MD3 Stereo Mastering Package for Pro Tools|HD is shipping now.

MD3 features a multiband 48-bit internal resolution structure, and offers a 3-band compressor and expander, a 4-band parametric equalizer, and a limiter in one powerful algorithm. MD3 can be configured for stereo or dual mono processing, and used on single sources as well as composite stereo mixes. Alternatively, stereo material may be processed in the MS domain, or MD3 may take in MS signals and convert them to stereo with processing taking place in either the LR or MS domain. BrickWall Limiter is a stereo/dual mono limiter with new features and technology

UK - Charcoalblue theatre consultants has confirmed that it is working on the plans for the redevelopment of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. The company has recently expanded its operation, taking on three new staff members plus two additions to its board of directors.

Since 2004 Charcoalblue, created by Andy Hayles, Jack Tilbury, Jon Stevens and Gavin Green, has also been working on the RSC's new Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.2005 saw commissions from English National Opera and Bristol Old Vic, in addition to being appointed by the National Theatre to work on its new studio redevelopment with Haworth Tompkins Architects. Following this, Aldeburgh Productions appointed Charcoalblue as theatre consultant for a second concert hall space at Snape Maltings, and to Newcastle Theatre Royal for a renewed flytower.

This year Charcoalblue was awarded the

Malaysia - Hong Kong-born Jacky Cheung (not to be confused with Jackie Chan, whom he has starred opposite in movies), is often idolized for his huge number of film credits but he first achieved phenomenal success as a singer of CantoPop (Cantonese and pop) music. In fact, Cheung's concert ticket and CD sales indicate him reigning as the world's most popular Chinese language singer for nearly 15 years.

In 1997, Cheung launched his own lavish production of an updated traditional musical, Snow Wolf Lake, which quickly sold out an unprecedented 43 consecutive shows at Hong Kong's mammoth stadium. In late 2005, when Cheung's new touring version of the show arrived in Malaysia, local rental company SES Sound and Light welcomed him with a world-class production package that included a brand new system of Meyer Sound MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers.

The two sold-

USA - Amerex Corporation of Trussville, Alabama has installed an Allen & Heath iDR system to manage audio matrixing and distribution of important operational and safety functions including fire and tornado alarms, telephone paging, and the shift-break alarm.

Designed and installed by Larry Bounds and Barry Henry of the EBS group, from Odenville, Alabama, in conjunction with Amerex's in house system technicians, the iDR-4 system also includes the optional PL-8, a four input/output logic contact closure unit.

"We chose the iDR because the programming of the box is very simple and the processor is very solid. We were able to install the system very quickly without any of the employees knowing," says Bounds. "We have also used the iDR in many other installations and we have found it to be a flexible and reliable solution."

The Amerex Corporation is the leadin

USA - Dutch dance virtuoso Tiësto was so taken by Pioneer's new DJM-800 mixer when he laid his hands on one for the very first time at club AgeHa in Japan that he wouldn't leave without carrying it away with him. Convinced of its greatness, Tiësto bagged the sample mixer from AgeHa's DJ booth and whisked it away to the Miami Winter Music Conference.

Once in Miami, Tiësto used the DJM-800 MIDI assignable digital mixer alongside four new Pioneer CDJ-1000Mk3 decks. Performing at two events held at the intimate Mansion club - including a special album launch party for his new In Search Of Sunrise 5 mix compilation, titled Los Angeles. This landmark mix was released via Black Hole Recordings on 27 April and to support its release Tiësto embarked on a three-week-long tour of Asia. In May he begins his tour of North America and will hit the Netherlands and the UK in June, wh

Hungary - Eleven audio professionals gathered in Budapest early this year for Hungary's first Meyer Sound training seminar on source independent measurement and the SIM 3 audio analyzer system. The intensive five-day course was taught by Mauricio "Magu" Ramirez, Meyer Sound's senior technical seminar instructor, with logistical support of the event entrusted to Makkay Imre of Chromatica, Meyer Sound's Hungarian distributor.

"After finishing this seminar, I felt like the proverbial blind man who has his sight restored," says Komjáthy Árpád, chief engineer for Expander 2000 Ltd., one of Hungary's largest rental companies. "Now I can see what I hear!"

Imre adds: "Attending a seminar led by Mauricio is always a great pleasure. He has an exceptional talent for helping his students learn quickly and in a practical manner."

The course mate

USA - Solid State Logic is pleased to announce the hiring of Donovan Stark as partnership manager. Based out of SSL's Los Angeles office, Stark is primed for further development of the company's successful retail channel programme. He will focus primarily on the AWS 900+ console and the XLogic range of rack mount products, including Duende, the legendary console manufacturer's Firewire audio processor for workstation users.

Donovan comes to SSL after three years as accounts manager with GC Pro, the pro audio sales division of music retailer Guitar Centre, where he was the top AWS 900 salesman. Donovan contributed to the success of the AWS 900, making sales to such customers as David Kershenbaum and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.

Donovan's responsibilities will include support and development of SSL's expanding XLogic dealer network, AWS 900+ sales support for Guitar Center and GC Pr

USA - For more than 15 years, Ronan Chris Murphy has proved himself to be one of the most sought-after producer/mixers of hard jazz, progressive rock and experimental music. Over the past five years, Murphy has spent much of his time working from his own Culver City-based Veneto West Studio. Having engineered and produced over 200 albums for others - including some 15 records for King Crimson and various offshoots - Murphy, an accomplished guitarist and composer, is now turning his attention to his own solo project, which benefits from an all-star backup band of Levin on bass and Chapman Stick, Keneally on keys, and both Mastelotto and Bozzio on drums.

Seeing that Bozzio's percussion setup spans 16 feet and includes literally dozens of drums and cymbals, Murphy and co-engineer Dan Richards chose to run the drummer's entire kit through 15 channels of A-Designs Audio microphone pr

Northern Ireland - Between 7.00pm on Tuesday 2 May and 9.00am on Wednesday 3 May 2006, a break-in occurred at the premises of Park Audio at 41 Sydenham Road, Belfast. A large amount of sound equipment was stolen together with a vehicle belonging to the company. The vehicle has since been recovered. Park Audio is appealing for any information that may lead to the recovery of the missing equipment.

Anyone with any information relating to the above incident is asked to contact Glenn at Park Audio on 02890 805805, or the Belfast Harbour Police on 02890 553000. Park Audio is offering a financial reward for information leading to the safe recovery of the stolen equipment.

Details of the equipment are as follows: 16 Crest Audio CD3000 power amplifiers and 6 Crest Audio CD2000 power amplifiers - all housed in 6 x 12U racks; 2 Community RS220 loudspeakers; 2 Community FB1

UK - The impact of David Gilmour's distinctive, edgy guitar work does not wane with repeated listening and Turbosound's Aspect loudspeaker system, used on his current On an Island tour, reproduces every note to hi-fi quality.

Both Turbosound and sound rental company Britannia Row have a long history with Gilmour that stretches back to Pink Floyd days and loyalty in the Gilmour camp to both companies is strong.

"There are a lot of people involved here who have been with David from day one," says production manager Roger Searle. "But no one is so set in their ways that they're not prepared to change things. David has a way that he likes to work, so that's the way we do things and if he's happy, we're happy."

Searle had some influence over the decision on choice of sound system. As he puts it: "I stuck my twopenneth in. We got a great result from

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